Lets give some stats on the its worldwide popularity.

1. The 2006 World Cup Finals drew 716 Million Viewers, while the whole tournament attracted 30+ billion non-unique viewers. To put that into perspective, the Beijing Olympics attracted a mere 4.7 Billion Viewers while the Superbowl attracted 95 Million viewers.
2. FIFA has 208 member associations, which is 16 more than the United Nations and three more than the International Olympic Committee, though five fewer than the International Association of Athletics Federations.
3. United States has more official soccer players than any other nation in the world – almost 18 million. Of these, 78 percent are under the age of 18. In the 1990s, soccer was recognized as the fastest-growing college and high school sport in the US.
4. Football is the richest sport in the world with one team valuing 1.87 Billion (Manchester United)
5. Football has the largest fan following in the world.

But what makes the sport so popular? Football in its simplicity only requires two teams and a small round ball. So both rich and developing countries can play this sport with great ease as expensive equipment and specific playing grounds are not required. The rules are also very easy to learn; don’t use your arms (all other body parts are allowed), stay within the outer lines, and kick the ball into the  opposing teams net. The hardest rule to learn is the offside rule, but even this can be understood after only a single game. It is these few requirements that make the game of soccer so exhilarating and fun to watch. Football requires both speed and great skill, players spend thousands of hours perfecting their art. The ability to have full control over a small ball is highly sought after, being able to kick at high speeds and with great accuracy can make a huge impact in any players sporting life. Every year Football becomes more popular than the year before, no other sport has been able to make this assessment. To sum up Football into two words; Passion and Simplicity.

PS. I know most people have a problem understanding the Offside Rule in Football and is probably the only rule in football that’s a bit complicated to understand. Please watch the video below to review the Offside Rule in Football.

There will be a point where user stats will reach a plateau and begin to level off where the rate of new users and users who absconded will be more or less equal. But at what point will that be? how many users will will a social network have to absorb before they become totally saturated; barring no other influence such as internal combustion (myspace).

At 400 Million users Facebook is still growing leaps and bounds poking their head into markets where social networks have never ventured before, winning the hearts and minds of first time social networkers and email checkers. Twitter at 75 Million users, is growing at a pace rival to that of the 2006 worldwide housing bubble and will indeed pass the 100 Million mark in the very near future.But what is the upper echelon mark to beat. What mark will dwarf any set before it. I put that mark at 1 Billion worldwide users. One Billion you say? You might think thats a staggering number but lets look at the stats.

According to the stats approximately one third of the worlds population is currently plugged in, thats about 2 billion people (give or take a few million).  A further breakdown shows half that number is currently in one or more social networks. Now imagine if the number of online users double within the next 5 years, where do you think that number will be. Doesnt seem like one billion is that far off huh? As internet speed increase as well as accessibility, users will become more drawn to each other to create more digital social connections.

Graph of current user stats for the top 5 social networks worldwide, We see that One Billion is not that far off.

European research and consulting firm InSites Consulting has released a detailed report based on a global study of 2,800 internet users. The full report provides fascinating insights into social networking preferences and behaviors around the world see below:

View larger Slideshow

Now that we know that in the end they are all dead the main question is were they all dead from the beginning in the plane crash  or did they eventually live out their lives as they should. I strongly believe that they all died at different times, some during the shows time line and others in some distant future. Whoever you saw die in the show they without a doubt died then and there. For example Locke died when Benjamin killed him in the motel room.

The island is an island, a mass of land in a body of water. The others lived there, the Dharma Initiative came to do their experiments and the plane crashed. Some people died immediately others survived and went on the do the show for 6 seasons.

But the plane crash made the island special for the survivors and a choice few other people (others including Ben and Desmond). The experiences and the bonds formed on the island made it an anchor for them, a central memory of the people that made the biggest impact in their lives. The story follows Jack, A spinal surgeon with many personal demons who went to Australia to brings his fathers body back home. On the way back a series of events caused his plane to crash on the island. a first glance the island seems like any other island, but the island has its own demons as well. A smoke monster, a guardian, time traveling properties, the others, a past civilization (The Darmha Initiative) and a mysterious statue. All this happened, all this was real in the world of lost,right up to Jack closing his eyes in the end was Jacks actual reality. When time went sideways THAT was Jacks ever after, his afterlife so to speak.

Upon dying Jacks life flashed in a new direction where the plane didn’t crash, he went home to a different, better reality where he married Juliet and had a kid, I guess its the life he thought he wanted. Eventually as the other survivors died they all the met Jack in his afterlife to make him remember and show him his way home.

So how do we know they didn’t die at the same time? Lets look at a few choice deaths:

Juliet: She died during the detonation of the hydrogen bomb. Not by the bomb itself but by falling into that very deep hole.

Locke: He died when Benjamin strangled him to death

Sayid: In a heroic feat, he saved the others by running off into a separate compartment as the bomb the other Locke planted exploded

Jin & Sun: They died together on the submarine after the explosion

Charlie: He died at the looking glass station

Now you might be wondering what happened to the others. Well they all went on to live their lives:

Claire, Richard Alpert, Sawyer, Kate, Frank & Miles: They all were on that plane that took off in the last episode. I would assume they all made it back home and lived their lives as they should. They probably all lived to a ripe old age had children and grandchildren.

Hugo & Ben: They probably lived for centuries protecting the island and Hugo probably chose a new successor before he died.

The final scene in the church when Jack realized that he was dead, those people are the ones that meant something to Jack. They chose to be there to help him ‘crossover’. Ben was outside because he was not ready yet, he still had his own personal demons that he was not ready to let go. But where did Millie, Penny and the other secondary cast come in? They are constants to the other main survivors, Millie to Hugo and Penny to Desmond.

So why do they seem to all arrive at the same time and the same age? This is how Jack remembered them, remember the only memory he has of them is what he knew from the island and from the oceanic 6 time back to the real world. And I would assume that time and space has no value in the afterlife. One meeting could have taken 25 years and to Jack it seemed like only minutes.

In the end they all got their happy ending, wrongs were righted, love that was lost was found again and they were all back together again. As for other mysteries such as the light and whats the purpose of the Island, I think some things are not meant to be explained and its for us to just accept that things happened without a reason, miracles do happen, and if it had an explanation then it wouldn’t be a miracle now would it?

• Share an inside joke on the fly with friends in specific groups eg. twitter and facebook lists. No need to contact group members individually.
• Share user sensitive data with your team
• Share X-Rated pictures and articles with that special someone
• Get that message out with additional private info embedded in a password locked link
• Embed confidential data in a forum or social site and hold the world at ransom. When the time is write, give them directions to the link and password.

Many people might not find this concept practical or useful but its good to know that if the need arises you can use the feature.

How to use the feature:

1. Insert url that you wish to shorten eg. http://shonari.net
2. Enter any desired password (optional): eg.  ‘boo’
3. Enter a clue if you want to have your desired target guessing away : eg. ‘ghostly sound’
4. Hit shorten and your url will be ready for use.

Here is the finished product, give it a try with the details above: http://trick.ly/30d

Try it yourself: http://www.trick.ly/

In my humble opinion adding an additional feature will make this service even more useful. Combining it with a quick note option with optional password will make sending secret notes back and forth a breeze. If you had that feature back at school, the teacher couldn’t send you to detention for that less than savory note to your best friend in class. A simple text note could be created directly from the site with optional password and clue, the trick.ly url is generated and now you have a safe and easy way to deliver a note over public sources.

Also password enabled links should be date sensitive ie the link will expire in  time specified by its creator. See where I’m going…a note with a self destruct timer. Sweet!

Applications:

Facebook is well known for its wide variety of unique user friendly applications, which are being designed on a regular basis to assist with professional networking that is taking place on the site. For instance, “Click-to-call” is a widget available on Facebook through which you can contact your friends via voice. But MySpace is void of such widgets. If your interest is experiencing cutting edge social applications then obviously Facebook is your home.

Creativity

Despite Facebook having a lot of Applications in its kitty, it doesn’t offer user creativity though fancy page designs. Here most of the pages follow one standard streamlined design and you cannot do much to make it look unique. On the contrary, MySpace offers a wide variety of page designs and so you can alter your profile frequently to make it look unique. And people interested in showing off their creativity always zone in on MySpace.

Spam

You won’t face the problem of spamming on Facebook whereas it is regular thing that happens on MySpace. Online advertisers often hack the profiles on MySpace and will create online propaganda about their new product/service which will create a big headache. If you think you don’t need such spam, then Facebook is the right spot for you.

News updates

MySpace doesn’t get too much negative news attention despite of the spam issue. The only part where it gets a bad review is that, MySpace poses a huge risk to underage users on the site. And most of the users don’t find this as a serious issue presuming that common sense needs to be used on the site.

On the contrary, Facebook has been hit with negative publicity recently. This is because of the change in the rules of advertising on the site and so; many found that their shopping preferences were being publicized without their knowledge which made them feel that their privacy was violated.

Summary

On the whole, the site that you prefer highly depends only on you. In addition to the above discussed sites, there are more other social networking sites available like Orkut, Linked In etc., Each of these offer their own niche like Orkut is for every individual and Linked In is designed specifically for the professionals. Just be clear with your need prior getting into the networking sites, if you want to get on with the latest trend then you will have flitter from sites to sites. Rather if you want to develop relationships, then find the one that suites you well and start getting to know people!

Cheers

After your various credentials for your Facebook and Twitter accounts, SocialScope’s homepage merges your twitter timeline with your facebook home feed and seemliness integrates both. I think if facebook and twitter were to get married and have a kid SocialScope is what they would spit out.

Features include:

Groups

Like Twitter lists, SocialScope allows you to group your favorite friends on twitter and creates a tab for easy access. Now you can view their timeline without having to sift through alot of the garbage you encounter from other people that you’re following.

ReTweet

Retweeting is built in so you can share a tweet with your friends at the push of a button

Linking

When browsing the web you can that link between twitter and facebook by sending it to socialscope. The link is shortened using bit.ly and you are given the option of sending to any or all of your available social networks

Viewing profiles

Ive always had a problem with how Facebook for BlackBerry presented images and profiles on my BlackBerry phone. With social scope things never looked so good. I actually want to view my friends photos and profiles, something i never did before on my mobile phone.

Multiple Twitter Accounts

Yes SocialScope allows you to add more than one twitter account, your alter ego wont be left behind.

Other features

Social Scope also offers url expansion and you can create new tabs for easy access to your favorite friend or profile links.

Its no iPhone but it does a pretty good job of pulling you away from your desktop and keeping you on the go. Hopefully you wont have to wait the 10 months I did for your invite. To show how much I love this app I am going to dedicate my left convenience key for its use.

SocialScope is also available for the iPhone and T-Mobile G1

Request and invite here: http://getsocialscope.com/